Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Interview of the Week: Actor/Writer Allen Maldonado on Starz drama "Heels," "The Wonder Years" reboot, and reimagining House Party

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Interview of the Week: Actor/Writer Allen Maldonado on Starz drama "Heels," "The Wonder Years" reboot, and reimagining House Party · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

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  Speaker 1: Help Jews in poverty and help Jews Now dot org.
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  Speaker 1: helped Jews now dot org. What girls in the forest,
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  Speaker 1: our imagination and our family bonds. The forest is closer
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  Speaker 1: than you think. Find a forest near you and discover
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  Speaker 1: the Forest dot org. Brought to you by the United
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  Speaker 1: States Forest Service and the AD Council. We've all felt
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  Speaker 1: left out, and for people who moved to this country,
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  Speaker 1: that feeling lasts more than a moment. We can change that.
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  Speaker 1: Learn how a belonging begins with us dot org. Brought
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  Speaker 1: to you by the AD Council. My next guest is
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Alan Maldonado. I smile when I say that name. He's
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  Speaker 1: an actor, writer, director, and entrepreneur. Among his films and
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: TV critics include Straight Out of Compton, Equalizing Cake, Sony's
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: Make of the Superfly, the Netflix movie Project Power, the
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  Speaker 1: Netflix series Sneakerheads, the TVs TV series The Last O,
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  Speaker 1: g Blackish, You're the Worst, and many more. Now that
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  Speaker 1: is the past. Now this is what's coming. Up New
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: and the movies, and on TV. Alan is starting a
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  Speaker 1: new Stars action back series Heels Plus this fall. He'd
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: be starting in the Wonder Years reboot for ABC, the
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: House Party movie reboot, and Psyche three. This is Gus
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  Speaker 1: three quote movie for Peacock. Please working the money, Make confortation.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: He's smiling, man, because I love talking to him. Man, actor, writer, director,
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  Speaker 1: and entrepreneur, My man, Alan Maldonado. Hey doing Alan, I'm excellent, Man,
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much. What an incredible intro. I appreciate it. Man.
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  Speaker 1: I'm over here listening liqually as you go down the list, like, oh, Man,
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  Speaker 1: I was on all that stuff. But you know something,
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  Speaker 1: Alan never tell you come on the show. You know,
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  Speaker 1: Like I said, Man, we've been having this relationship going
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  Speaker 1: on four years, you know, uh, you know, and and
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: just watching You're watching the growth because we you know,
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  Speaker 1: because we really started talking about the entrepreneurship side of you,
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  Speaker 1: what you were doing in Hollywood and how he was
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  Speaker 1: making a difference. And and now it's being overwhelmed by
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  Speaker 1: your talent as an actor, which has always been out there,
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  Speaker 1: but it's now starting to be recognized on so many levels.
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  Speaker 1: How are you able to balance that and are you
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  Speaker 1: as being able to balance the acting this is it
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  Speaker 1: taking you away from the entrepreneurship side or you're being
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  Speaker 1: a balance both. Wow, man, I guess how what's the
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  Speaker 1: best way to put it? Put it all in perspective? Um, Well,
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  Speaker 1: for me, I had to understand balance. I have to
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  Speaker 1: understand balance, as you know. And in the last four years,
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  Speaker 1: and you know, it's been, it's been crazy, it's been.
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  Speaker 1: It's been in a good way. Um. God has given
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  Speaker 1: me everything I wanted, and it's one of those things
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  Speaker 1: where it's like, Okay, this is what you've been asking
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  Speaker 1: for for years. Now go do something with it. Um. So,
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  Speaker 1: just a balance between work and rest and relaxation has
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  Speaker 1: been the biggest challenge and the biggest thing that I
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  Speaker 1: know is important. Um. As you know those four or
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  Speaker 1: five years where I was doing black Ish, Survivors, Remorse,
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  Speaker 1: You're the Words, all these things simultaneously while writing and
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: starting on other shows, I burned myself out. I'm not
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: gonna lie you know. So, Uh, after the quarantine, I
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  Speaker 1: really made in my business to make sure I have
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  Speaker 1: the proper balance between working and working extremely hard as
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  Speaker 1: I do, and then finding time to get those breaks
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  Speaker 1: where either just a three day vacation, two day vacation
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  Speaker 1: or daycare or whatever like, I just have to be adamant,
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  Speaker 1: just as focused and goal driven for business and in
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: acting success. I gotta be just as driven in my
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: personal and self care. Absolutely. I'm talking to interview Alan
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: maldon Alto. I remember when you first came on Money
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: Making Conversation, it was Virus Remorse, which is out of
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: Lebron James's company, and then I brought him back. It
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: was it was the Last o g which would and
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: then I brought him. After that was Project Power on
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  Speaker 1: Netflix with and that's with Jamie Fox, and now bringing
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  Speaker 1: you back for a serious and not just one. It's
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: a series of things which is really beautiful. And uh
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: and and let's talk about heels, you know, because on
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  Speaker 1: social media, you know, you let everybody know you've got
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: some fitness going on in your life. You know, I
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: know it makes me feel bad, but I'm alright up
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  Speaker 1: older than him, so I don't take it personal. But
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: if you young like him, you might want to take
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: it personally. Not following his feed sometimes because he's looking good.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: So finally, all that personal. So that's why I like
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: about your Alum. You know, you prepare for success and
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: we don't know where it's gonna come from. And because
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: you're doing all that personal training, some people say, man,
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: why are you doing the work up? You know what
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: you're going for you and you just never know where
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: your opportunities are going to come. And because of that,
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: you are with additional training that they've given you are
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: pretty much wasn't shocked by the request of this level
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  Speaker 1: of fitness, physical fitness that they need for this series
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  Speaker 1: that's on Stars called Heels. Yeah, I wasn't. I wasn't
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  Speaker 1: shocked at all. Man. Um. I had, uh just a
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  Speaker 1: quick story as more of a testimony than anything. Um.
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  Speaker 1: You know, two years ago, like I said, I kind
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  Speaker 1: of burnt myself out and I had to recharge mentally, physically,
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  Speaker 1: spiritual and all those things. And God put it on
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  Speaker 1: my heart to get stronger and uh be more um
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  Speaker 1: focused on my you know, self care and personal fitness.
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  Speaker 1: And in that conversation, uh, he gave me the crazy
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  Speaker 1: notion to run marathons. So I began to run training
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  Speaker 1: for marathons in Spain while I was shooting a film
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  Speaker 1: out there, uh called American Cardinates that would be out
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  Speaker 1: I think next year as well. Um, it was. I
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  Speaker 1: ran in four marathons in five months around in New
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  Speaker 1: York Marathon, the Disney Marathon, the Miami Marathon, and the
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  Speaker 1: l A Marathon. And a week after I ran the
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  Speaker 1: March the l A Marathon, which is my fourth marathon. Uh,
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  Speaker 1: I booked hills. So it was one of those things
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  Speaker 1: where God told me to do something to get prepared
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  Speaker 1: for two years ago for an opportunity that came you know,
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  Speaker 1: later down the line. So uh, it was just me
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  Speaker 1: meeting up with my blessings. Um, that's how this whole
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  Speaker 1: kind of fitness kind of journey begin with that, you know,
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  Speaker 1: wholeheartedly it was. It was very selfish, simple and I
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  Speaker 1: respect because I always tell people people look at me
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  Speaker 1: that you know we're suing. Do you go sleep? Because
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: I always tell people I'm never shocked by my opportunities
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: because I'm always preparing for my opportunities. Because I've always
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: felt that about you when I'm talking to you, because
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: we have a good time, but we always always see
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: activity in your eyes, and your eyes tell me your
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: brains active. You know what I'm saying, because you always
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: this conversation is just one a minute. That's going that's
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  Speaker 1: happening in your life and supposed to happen in your life. Now.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: When I saw the show Heels, know that I am
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: a wrestling fan from the from from elementary school. Okay,
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: well that's how far back I go. And so the
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: series Heels when it's being advertised on Stars and it
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: has my man who started who blew up in Fame
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: on the series Vikings. If you have not seen the
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: series Vikings, please it's an incredible series. And then also
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: a man who started in this series Arrow, which is
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: on the seat of your platform. When I saw one
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: of those guys, I went, I got to watch that,
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: and then I started seeing the trailers and then I
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: guess who popped up one of my favorite people, Alan
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  Speaker 1: mauldin off And guess what you were sitting just like
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: that with short sleeves and you're good. Heck no, he's
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: showing off. Yeah. Man, working with those guys incredible, I got.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: I must say that. Shout out to our showrunner Michae
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: O'Malley uh and just everybody has Stars for collecting a
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: group of actors that are extraordinary. Um, you know it's
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: a dream team. Man. You you wake up as an
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: artist and you dream of being surrounded by people that
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: share your same passion, your drive, your intensity to uh
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: being an artist. And that's the cast appeals and um
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: everybody down even shout out to you know, my uh
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: biggest bro, James Harrison, who I often tease and I'm
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: the little brother that he never asked for. But even
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: with him being this being his first series as an actor,
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: he came in and showed up and showed out as
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: an elite athlete, prepared, um and giving it his all.
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: And that was It's an incredible environment. And that's what
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: I'm excited for people to see just all of these
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: talented people come together and we kind of just you know,
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: form the Avengers on screen and it's it's just beautiful.
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: It's beautiful, man. I can't wait for people to say now.
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: When he said James Harrison looked a little background on
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: an incredible linebacker for the Pittsburgh Steelers who ran back
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: that testdown and like ran over like fifteen people in
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: the Super Bowl and I playing some Super Bowl for testdown.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: It was a super Bowl super I was there. He
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: don't never try to claim that I was there with him,
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: but he always they always neglect me out of NFL history.
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: But it's all right because you know he's a workout
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: free that's one thing. That's one thing for sure. If
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: you think you can work out, Alla hang around James
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: Harrison because I had I had a good fortune of
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: meeting him when I was with Steve Harvey on the
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: Steve Harvey Talk Show. He did talk show and we
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: sat down my office, had a good conversation because he's
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: a character. He's a character, and he will tell you
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: what's on his mind. If you if you're sitting across
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: from him, all we talked about James Harrison, and you
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: don't want the truth or some positive feedback that might
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: become negative that you expected what they say. Hold back
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: his words. You're talking at all, No, not at all, no, No.
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: But but that's the type of person because he's competitive.
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: He's gonna push you towards your greatness. When you're talking
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: about that, talking about working with him, working with him,
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: I got, I got the chance to train with him
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: for nine months. So while we were shooting hills, it
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: was basically a part of our it was a part
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: of our contract to work out basically five days out
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: of the week, even when we're shooting and when we're
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: not shooting. So I took it upon myself to you know,
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: basically shadow him, shadow him while he trained. So these
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: are four four or fifteen wake up, five am. We
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: in the gym and we're training, and we're working for
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: at least two hours um every day, Monday through Saturday.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: And I did that with that man for nine months,
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: and I learned what it takes to be and to
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: eat eat athlete, the approached, the mental side of it,
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: all the physical, the importance of recovery, like I've learned
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: so much from from him man um so like it
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: was life changing to be able to have nine months
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: to train with such an elite athlete and kind of
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: just you know, mimic and being inspired by his routine
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: and and learn, like you know, as an actor, you
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: you you, you you portray, and you portray these type
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: of characters, but to actually be next to one and
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: befriend one and kind of pick his brain on how
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: it all comes together was just another blessing. It's finally here,
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  Speaker 1: a moment. We can change that. Learn how it belonging
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  Speaker 1: begins with US dot Org, brought to you by the
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  Speaker 1: AD Council. Alcome mile in machine. Hi everyone, Al Roker
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: here as a guy with his own catchphrase. I appreciate
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  Speaker 1: Forest Service, your state Forrester, and the AD Council. Now
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: when you're talking, let's let's talk about we're talking about
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: We're talking with Ala Maldonaldo. We're gonna talk about Animo Project.
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: But right now we're talking about the stars action drama
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: called Heels. What's your rolling in? And uh, how do
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: you interact with the other characters. Rooster Robbins is the name,
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: its Rooster time. He is the high flying act of
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: the show and of the restling league. Um, we're part
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: of this independent restling league and Duffy called d w
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: l Um. I'm one to sell the wrestlers on the show, UH,
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: and you kind of see me go through my growing pains.
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: I'm a I'm a VET, but I started off as
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: a young prodigy, so you kind of see the frustration
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: of UH in the eagerness to get to the next level.
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: In this series, it's a drama. So I know people
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: used to me being in comedies as of late, but
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: I'm excited to be able to flex that and just
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: remind people, Like, you know, the last five years, people
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: have known me for my comedy, but you know, I've
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: been doing this a long time and like the first
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: ten years in my career, I did nothing but dramatic work.
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: So I'm excited to kind of flex that muscle and
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: and and remind people that I can. You know, I'm
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: all around. Well. The special thing about that when I
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: watched Kevin Hart, you know, and can flex his his
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: his drama muscle, and I watch you. But like I said,
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: because you do so many different projects, that lets me
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: know you can do this too. Because You're not to
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: be pigeonhole as far as any of the roles that
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: you play, because they all are different, they all involved
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: some research like this involved some research, but more importantly,
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: I gotta ask you the physicality of this particular role
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: because of the fact that you know, you see, you know,
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: the Friday Night wrastling or the USA wrastling on Friday
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: and Fox, these guys coming off that turn buckle, hitting
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: that hitting that floor. Talk about that training and how
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: you were able to recover because you talk about recovering
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: from things like that, and then when you were doing
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: the training process, the meant that when you had to
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: have the confidence that you will be all right when
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: you finally hit the match right, well, you know that's
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: what the importance of the weight training and like stretching
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: was something that I really grew to love while shooting
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: this show and again working with James, like the importance
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: of it. I never really stretched before, like an idiot,
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: but now it's it's a part of my routine where
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: I got like thirty minutes uh before and after every
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: workout that I'm I'm stretching in the pons of that.
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: So with that being said, training and all of the
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: wrestling routines that we would learn, and we had a
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: fantastic group of stunt doubles. Um you know, I was
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: blessed to be able to do most of my stunts. Uh,
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: I was excited. I was that six year old kid
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: jumping off of couches, you know, So anytime they would
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: ask me to do this ridiculous stunt, and I always
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: took a beat because the grown Maldonado was like, Nat
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: injury on this, like, come on, chill, chick, six year
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: old maldon I was like, what are you talking about?
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: This is what we dreamed. Uh. Jumpy got a rig
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: front flipping back rope, back flipping off the top ropes,
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: backflipping on James Harrison, jumping on, jumping out of the ring, flipping.
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: I said, you know what, I want to do it
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: all and I want to experience what it feels like
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: to be a real wrestler. And wrestling is real. It's predetermined,
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: but it's real. Those those those um hitting, that hitting
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: that canvas is real and it gets even really after
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: you get close lines seven times in a row by
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: James Harrison. So definitely by nine, by the ninth month
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: of us filming this thing, Uh, my body was. It
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: took a toll on my body. I was definitely needed,
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: uh in much need of a vacation. Well, you know,
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: I'm really I'm happy you're saying about wrestling is real
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: because you know, when you do, you do action scenes
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: and moving. When you're fighting, you can throw a punch,
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: you know you when you did they shooting there certainly
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: can look like it made contact. But wrestling plays itself
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: in front of a live audience, so there has to
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: be some degree of physical contact. Album that's what you're
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: talking about, you know. So when when that um hits you,
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: it actually is gonna make contact with your body, you
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: know it's gonna make contact, so you have to react
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: to it so you won't make full contact and knock
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: yourself out. So when you were going through that process,
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: like you said, the older version you said, whoa, whoa,
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: I got another project coming up. I want to get
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: up from this mat. The younger versions of hey, brother,
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: you know we've been waiting on this. We gotta do
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: it now. So when did you get confident that this
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: is something you can do? I know you wanted to
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: do it. Was it just talking to the stock doubles,
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: just just sitting down and looking at the whole step
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: by step process of walking it through that you were okay,
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: I'm cool with this now. It's it's simple, man, I
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: wouldn't let James out do like like for real, man, Like,
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: you know, James is ridiculous. Man, I love that dude.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: Like he's a premier athlete. He's in there doing backflips
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: and all this other stuff and I'm just sitting there like, man,
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: I can't. I can't go out like that. Let me
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: go ahead and do this back flip. He definitely inspired
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: me to take a lot of risk and challenges I
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: probably wouldn't have done if you weren't there. To be honest,
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: just because we have this healthy competition, Um, we're not
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: even that competition. Like I said, he inspires me to
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: train it harder, uh and do things better, and you know,
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: incorrectly because that was what a lot of things that
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: he was doing and fixing with the things I was training. Um,
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: but now, to be totally honest, I keep it a buck.
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: It was I didn't wanna let James out do me
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: by backflipping and then me not me not backflipping myself
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: as well. So it was it was one of those
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: things we kept pushing each other. I love it. Now,
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: you know, the whole problem, like the whole good thing
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: about this whole show is that it's on Stars. You
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: wanted the stars of the series, it's Carl Heels that's
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: premiered on the Stars Network. Now, the great thing about
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: whenever I talked to Ala maldon A though, it's never
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: stops at one conversation, y'all, it's always what and the
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: the great thing about you you hear people hype stuff. Well,
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: you know when you Deadline dot Com, that's the variety.
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: You know, he's on Deadline dot Com. That's like the
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: old him online digital shout out for something big in Hollywood.
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: Now he's been in Deadline so much because I get
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: there alerts, so I'll be knowing about Alabata dollar. Alabata Dollar. So,
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: my man, you got the Wonder Years reboot, that's a
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: Don Cheeto project from for ABC. You got the House
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: Party movie movie Reboat Rebirth. That's through Lebron James's company here,
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: and that's the Lebron James we all know. Just wrapped
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: up Space JAF two number one, Moving the Country. Don
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: you have SIGHTE three. This is Gus. That's a three
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: quoal for the Peacock Network. Let's start with the Wonder
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: Years reboot. Your role. How you got involved in that
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: and that's on ABC. Uh while I played coach long Um,
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: I'm also the father to um, the best friend of
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: the show. Uh. So UM, how Wonder Years came about
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: Saladeine Patterson as the show runner. Shoutout to Saladeine, UM,
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: incredible writer, incredible person overall. I had uh the honor
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: of working with him uh at the writer's room because
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: he show ran The Last O G. So when the
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: opportunity came where there was a role that I suited,
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: I was suited for. UM, he just reached out and UM,
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: you know, made the phone call and we worked it
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: all out. Uh. We had our prior, you know, working
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: working relationship with the Last O G. And we worked
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: so well together it was you know, it was a
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: no brainer. UM going in and just shout out to
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: dol a Um who we also started the Psyche movie
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: which spawned from how well we worked together on Wonder
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: Years and a Wonder Years pilot. So I mean, I'm
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: a I'm a big believer and work gets you more work.
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: And That's how I've built my career of just being consistent,
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: being on time, being professional, UM, trying my best to
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: super received anyone's expectations of what they what they want
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: out of whatever character I deliver on screen, and that's
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: how all of this stuff continues to happen. Man, So
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: I'm blessed and I look forward to just continuing the
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: consistent work ethic and just giving him all as an artist. Man,
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: I really, I really, really really love this acting thing. Well,
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: you know, I don't want to short change no you know, actor, writer, director, entrepreneur.
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: You know, in the writer's room in Blackish, you know,
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: we all talked about this. So you know, sometimes I'm
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: jealous of you because I was in the writer's room
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: but I couldn't act. So you know, so you got
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: me that, you know what I'm saying, I could tell
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: a joke, but I couldn't that. So you still got
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: me that I could direct but I couldn't that. So
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: you know, you always go top Regan McDonald. Is that
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: what you talked about was relationships and a lot of
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: people that don't understand that really is the value. And
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: black actors now are starting to get relationships with people
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: that look like us. They are making phone calls. You know,
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: used to be Spike Lee was the only black person
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: that can make phone calls, you know, but now there
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: are other black people in this business starting to make
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: phone calls and becoming decision makers. And you create these
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: relationships and into making you feel comfortable about the future
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: and what you can do not only as an actor,
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: but as a writer and a director, because you want
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: to bring your own projects to the screen, whether it's
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: small or large. Correct, Yeah, I mean that's I mean
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: life has built off relationships, not just you know, entertainment.
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: I think people lose sight that the real value on
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: this uh, this o this world is pet the people. Um,
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: in your relationships. If everything with the dirt, we will
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: be relying on each other's relationship to survive, whether it
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: like if this person hunting and this person caught fish,
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: or this person was good as a blacksmith. For all
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: these things, um, we had to depend more on what technology.
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: In the way society has built You're not really um
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: measured by your talents, your natural talents rather um, so
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: people try to diminish your worth. Um. So overall, man,
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: I think relationships and being a good person and respecting
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: one another will get you a very very very long way. Um.
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: And I'm happy to uh have built a you know,
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: reputation of being a stand up person and uh professional
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: at the end of the day and really just I'm
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: just a cool dude man, like I do my work
• 24:36
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• 24:42
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• 24:51
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• 24:55
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• 25:16
  Speaker 1: Our imagination, our sense of wonder, and our family bonds
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: grow too, because when we disconnect from this and connect
• 25:25
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• 25:30
  Speaker 1: closer than you think. Find a forest near you and
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• 25:41
  Speaker 1: Adoption of teams from foster care is a topic. Not
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• 26:00
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• 26:04
  Speaker 1: Us Kids, brought to you by the U. S Department
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  Speaker 1: of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: and the Council. You went back now you're doing a
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: movie and went back to my era, you know House
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: Party reboot. You know that brought back some memories and
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: the fact that you're invrolved with it, you know. Uh,
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: I leeve Jacob Latimer from The Shy is uh starting
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: in the movie with you. Uh talk about that reboot,
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: I know you know back then, Uh, you know a
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: lot of comedians were involved in a lot of great
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: comedy actors were involved in it. When that was approached
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: to you put on your docket. Talk about that experience.
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: Like you said, you have a past relationship, working relationship
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: with Lebron James on Survivor's Remorse, and that's what I
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: love about you. Whenever we talk, you have a clear
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: understanding that, like we talked about a few minutes ago,
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: relationships build opportunity, and on that opportunity, you still have
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: to deliver the work, and you don't. You don't fall
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: back on I just that's my boy. He's gonna take
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: care of you, going there with the mindset that I
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: still have to deliver in order to get the next
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: opportunity from my board or from my girl. Correct that
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: it's correct, man, um, I think people. Uh, And that's
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: the respect aspect of it all. Just because you're you know,
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: friends are you're closer to one person versus the next,
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: doesn't mean you lose respect for your craft or your
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: job or what they have hired you for. And a
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: lot of times we do do that, and it's disrespectful
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: to whoever your friend is because it's like, man, that's
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: something separate, like I hired you to do something, but
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: house party is it is one of those I p
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: s are you know classics that to be a part
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: of this new version and this new creation of it.
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: As you know, you know, people tend to think of
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: reboots as sequels, and that's not really what it is.
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: To reboot. It's a different version of this similar world,
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: this coming of age story that we got to experience
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: that impacted the culture in such a way in the
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: early nineties that you know has transferred to to now
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: which is almost thirty years UM. Shout out to Reggie
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: who directed the first one, who's um, you know, the
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: mind and the creation, the brilliance behind the first one.
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: He's a part of the reboot as well as an
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: executive producer. So we're in good hands with Lebron. Uh.
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: Shout out to Chuck, our director. Um. You know, and
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: we we we were looking in and we're determined to
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: put some very very funny on screen. Now will be
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: fun Yeah, that you know people would enjoy at the
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: end of the day, and that's all that matters. You know.
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: Before I go, I I'll be remissed. I kind of
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: mentioned their names a little bit. We talked a lot
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: about James co starring with you and the stars series Heels,
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: but you have two leads in there. Because I mentioned
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: start in the series Viking series and also starting the
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: Arrow series. Can you talk about that their talents and
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: working with their talents and how how they just incredibly
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: gifted young men and nice people as well. Oh Man,
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: Stephen the Mill uh and Alexander. Um, they're they're pure professionals. Man.
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: I love sharing the screen with them. Some of some
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: of my favorite scenes in the series are with them. Um,
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: some some really good dramatic work. Uh and just lions
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: man like we gotta we gotta den for the lions.
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: And Stephen the Mill is the captain of the ship
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: man uh and second up Axander and they set the tone. Um.
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: You know there's scenes I've seen with scenes Xanders throwing
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: chairs and all types of crazy stuff. I love it
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: like it's it's it's it's a beautiful, you know, sort
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: of dance that you get to witness close and personal
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: when you when you get to work with phenomenal actors
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: such as such as them man and along with the
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: entire got Chris Bow Like shout out to Chris. He
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: plays wild Bill on the show Everybody's be in Love
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: with wild Bill on this show. Um, Chris is hands
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: down one of my favorite actors to watch work this witness. Uh.
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: He's such a pure artist. Uh. And every time, every
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: second uh and every frame that you see him, mean,
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: it's something special when you go get something unique. So
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: I'm telling you it's the whole cast is incredible and
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: oh my god, I just can't wait. Well before I
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: want to end on a personal note, we were recording
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: this interview via zoom and in the background I see
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: some tributes to Kobe Bryant in order to see the
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: images that I'm seeing. Obviously, he had an impact on
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: you of users, and his death unfortunately allowed me to see.
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: I only knew Kobe Bryant the basketball star, you know,
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: kind of knew about him as Kobe Bryant the father.
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: But afterwards I realized how he took the time to
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: pack so many people. I see images of him on
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: your back wall there. Talk about why that's important that
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: you have that on your back wall, and Kobe Bryant
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: and why he has an impact in your life. Uh
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: he you know, Mama, mentality is the gospel. It's the
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: uh you know, away of life over here. For me, man,
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: just that type of dedication and that obsession to what
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: you love and to your craft. You know, just the phrases,
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: you know, different animals, same beasts, Like these are things
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: that ring in my head daily when whenever I'm in
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: pursuit or whatever, go whether it be fitness, mental, personal, spiritually,
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: like there is no nose, there's only as uh and
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: and it's a lot inspired by you know, Kobe, watching
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: him work, watching watching his um, his rise, his struggles,
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: his wins, his losses, um and just his perseverance and
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: his legendary work ethic is what uh you hear about?
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: And only this is gonna the legend is only gonna
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: grow as the stories continue to go. Even in his
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: past and so uh Kobe personally means a lot of
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: an l a kid as well. So um, we we
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: watched him grow and you know, to see him pass
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: in the manner that he did was just so traumatic
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: and um it's impacted everyone, you know, definitely condolescence to
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: his wife and the kids, like we can only imagine
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: how they feel, and being that we felt so heartbroken
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: even though we and me personally I didn't know him
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: personally at all. So uh, just an incredible human being,
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: incredible inspiration. So um, you know, he's definitely at the
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: top of my mouth rushmore as far as the inspiration,
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: appreciate as always appreciate that all of we are, we
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: would definitely be seeing you again. It's always about to
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: in Spain. You kind of threw out that love the
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: movie project that's coming out next year, so we'll be
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: talking next year. It's always appreciated. Always appreciate you man again.
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: I'll be watching TV with your face only a lot
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: this fall. Keep getting those blessings with God and doing
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: what God has asked you. Always love and always a
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: great conversation with you men. Appreciate you brother all right.
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: If you want to hear any of my interviews on
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: want to make conversations seem please go to Money Making
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: Conversation dot combs Sean McDonald, I am your hopes in
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